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Front cover of Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) TPB volume 1 - Emperor Quill |
Score (out of 5 Capes)
A middling score for a middling book. There are some moments of aching beauty, lots of entertaining banter, some brilliant wordless action sequences. But to reach each of those almost-sublime moments, you must dig through many other stretches of text-heavy boredom and confusion.
My Review
Following the Marvel Comics crossover Secret Wars event of 2015, several series relaunched with new #1 issues. Guardians of the Galaxy was one of them. And, befitting such a relaunch, it includes some substantial changes in the makeup of the team.
Most notably, it introduces two Earth-born heroes. Former X-men member Kitty Pryde has picked up the mantle of the Star-Lord. Her natural leadership abilities do lead to some tensions with Rocket Raccoon, who assumed the slot of the top Guardian was entirely his.
Other Earth-connected characters also join the team. There is Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, making a jump from the Fantastic Four to a new team. And Flash Thompson aka Venom, not a character known as a team player.
The title of Star-Lord was up for grabs because its former holder, Peter Quill, came out of the events of Secret Wars as the new emperor of Spartax. It's hard to go bounding through the stars on great Guardian adventures when you have countless governance meetings to attend.
Spartax is at the center of the action throughout this book. First, the last surviving great Kree warrior comes, intent on avenging the destruction of her home world, Hala. The destruction that follows in her wake is intense and immense. She repeatedly defeats mighty Gamora and only some clever teamwork from the Guardians can stop her.
Before Spartax can catch its breath, though, Yotat the Destroyer arrives with blood on his mind and soon on his hands.
It all leads to some political shake-up as the new emperor's reign proves very short. A bloodless coup sends him fleeing with his old Guardian friends.
Artist Valerio Schiti shows some visual prowess in these pages. When given the space by the narrative - more on that in a minute - he fills the pages with sequences of intense, wordless images. They are powerful, suspenseful, moving, a real tribute to the power of visual storytelling in such capable hands.
Kudos to writer Brian Michael Bendis for trusting his artist enough to let the pictures tell key parts of the story. Unfortunately, sometimes those words left out of one page appear in another, burying the reader under occasionally burdensome narration and drawn-out dialog.
When that excessive dialog works, it gives us some real fun interplay between the characters. But other times it is prone to filling too much space trying too hard to be humorous.
It is also not clear why the rebooted series needs to borrow so heavily from Earth-born heroes. Kitty Pryde was established as a reluctant space-based hero in the Legendary Star-Lord series, now in it for the long haul. She is a bit of a stretch as a Guardian, but sure. But how to justify Ben Grimm? Or Venom? These are weird choices, head-scratching additions to a beloved team.
While it does continue a pattern, with for example Captain Marvel also taking turns bringing some Earth-based reasons to care about the Guardians, the series would be stronger to double-down on its interstellar space romp. Rocket, Groot, Drax, Gamora, each has emerged as a beloved alien character; why could Bendis not introduce some new alien-born characters. Or if Earth needs to be a part of it, maybe as an anchor for future crossover events, give us an unknown Earth-born hero. The approach of borrowing heroes and characters from other books leaves me cold.
It is also frustrating how swiftly Peter Quill goes from Emperor to Villain. By the end of this book, still only issue #5 of the ongoing series, he is out. Was it an internal power move? That's fine, it is just politics. Was it a coup? maybe. Was he not suited to that level of leadership, presiding over an entire planet? Undoubtedly.
But by the end of the story arc, he and the Guardians with whom he flees have suddenly been declared "enemies of the galaxy." The basis of that declaration is.. what exactly? It is a gaping hole in this tale, a frustrating twist that moves the plot away from Spartax but leaves us scratching our heads about the logic.
What I loved
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| Visual storytelling in issue #3 |
Comics and graphic novels are inherently visual forms of communication. Too often, though, word-based storytelling eclipses image-based elements. But sometimes the author resists the urge to fill the space with words and lets the artist tell the story through their art.
Bendis does just that a few times in this book, to positive effect. Schiti rises to the challenge and gives us intense images that drive both the action and the emotion. A picture is worth a thousand words, the old cliche tells us; and in these instances, it works. In the example above, something momentous is clearly about to happen between two determined and powerful women.
What I didn't love
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| Too much dialog in too many places |
The flip side of the What I Loved section above. Sometimes Bendis cannot resist filling the panels with text.
The nuance and details in this dialog would be challenging to show without words, but the conversation adds little to the story despite filling most of the space in the panel. Too many times, a chain of word bubbles mars and hides the artist's contribution.
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Quick Reference Details
Writers: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Valerio Schiti
Published By: Marvel Comics
Published When: Dec 14, 2016
Parental Rating: Teen
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| Back cover of Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) volume 1 - Emperor Quill |
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